D.C. Area Babies

A Christmas baby - good or bad?

My BF from college and her wife had their baby boy on Christmas morning! How sweet is that? She was due Jan. 5th, so it was a bit of a surprise. I think they were thinking they would have a New Years baby, not a Christmas baby but he had other plans! Anyway, they're not religious but celebrate Christmas. Is this a big deal? I think it's cool that he was born on Christmas, but that might suck for him later on, no? This is kind of a ways away, but how do you make a kid feel special on Christmas when everyone else is throwing parties and getting presents too?
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Re: A Christmas baby - good or bad?

  • My older sister is a Christmas Eve baby, and she hates it.  It's gotten a lot better now that she's older, but there were many fights between her and my mom growing up, about how Christmas always overshadowed her birthday.  My mom is religious, and attending Christmas Eve church service was always important to her, and trying to balance that and celebrating my sister's birthday was a struggle for her and for my sister (since the last thing my sister wanted to do was go to church on her birthday!).  Also, she had a hard time getting people together for a birthday party on Christmas Eve.  She also had a lot of gifts given to her as "both birthday and Christmas" gifts, which she didn't appreciate.  Even this year, my parents were visiting us out here, so her family went to her IL's for Christmas Eve dinner, and her MIL didn't even acknowledge it was her birthday!  I think it's just hard to keep the two separate without having to forcefully downplay one or the other.
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  • my nephew's bday is on Christmas Eve and last year my sister had a party for him in April. It was random and she never really explained why she chose April, but she's doing it again this year, so we'll go with it.

    Lots of kids are born on Christmas, not much that can be done about it, but I think that it really does suck for the kids when they are younger (school age). My birthday is Jan. 6th and even 12 days after Christmas people were always trying to give joint xmas/bday presents which I think is bs :-) (but somehow I persevered!) 

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  • imagebh2720:
    My birthday is Jan. 6th and even 12 days after Christmas people were always trying to give joint xmas/bday presents which I think is bs :-) (but somehow I persevered!) 

    Mine was yesterday and I used to get so many joint gifts. And they were never bigger or anything, just like "here's your christmas/birthday t-shirt!" Jerks.

    Anyway . . . yeah, I actually have an uncle, cousin, and two friends with Christmas birthdays. I think your friends not being religious will help, because the focus won't be on the entire day, you know? Just presents under the tree in the morning. Maybe they can carve out something special in the evening for her (cake, family coming over)? Definitely separate presents. And maybe make a big deal about having a party with her friends the weekend after (because no one is ever around when you have a birthday close to Christmas, believe me).

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  • My friend has a Christmas baby and they celebrate in Feb, and always have (she is now 13 years old).  When they are really young, they probably won't understand that they aren't celebrating on their birthday and then when they are older, they may appreicate getting 2 sets of gifts. 
  • I think that how people feel about their birthday is based more on how their family celebrates it and makes them feel and less about where it falls on the calendar. If I were them, I would create special traditions for the kid's birthday. For example, maybe they have Christmas lunch and then in the evening, they do a birthday party complete with balloons, decorations, etc. Or, maybe they celebrate it each year on the 26th so that he has his own day. His parents can tell him every Christmas about how he's the best gift they've ever gotten and recount how he decided to come on Christmas. They can also ask that family members not give him "joint gifts" and ask that he gets separate birthday gifts so he still feels like he has a birthday. There's a lot you can do as parents to make it feel special so I don't think it's a huge deal.

    My birthday is on Dec. 30 and my parents always tried to make it special even though it fell between two holidays. When I got older, one year I asked for a summer birthday party and my mom did it for me. My mom and dad always give me a separate birthday gift. So, I don't feel like my birthday wasn't celebrated.

    As a side note, I have a friend who has a Dec 31 birthday and one of his pet peeves is when people wrap his birthday gift in Christmas wrapping paper. So, that's just an FYI that some people are sensitive about that sort of thing. They want it to feel like a birthday, not an extended Christmas. One thing I noticed is that my mom always wraps my birthday gift in birthday wrapping paper so I guess she already knew that.

    ETA: I was just reading my post and realized I said, "even though it fell between two holidays" in the past tense. It still does fall between two holidays and yes, I'm still alive. LOL.

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  • we have two friends wtih Christmas day babies, my nephew is two days before and my son's birthday is early December. 

    none of them are happy about it. this year, my nephew pleaded to have a real birthday party with real friends there (it's always just family and cake, while dad is hurrying to go finish his shopping b/c, let's face it, men are never done early). so they are having a birthday party in january.

    for exactly the reasons stated in this post, we celebrate T's birthday before we do anything related to Christmas. DH doesn't understand why, and he loves all things Christmasy, but i think it's really important that T grow up with a clear distinction between birthday celebration and Christmas celebration.

    birthdays are really big deals in my family and i would hate for my child (or anyone's) to miss out on that.

    and, FTR, i think joint presents suck! i always send my nephew two presents: one wrapped in birthday paper, the other in holiday paper.  

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  • imageLindseyJW:
    (it's always just family and cake, while dad is hurrying to go finish his shopping b/c, let's face it, men are never done early).

    Yes! Every year my dad would say, "Oh, your birthday is coming up too? Jeez" like he'd forgotten that it was three days after Christmas. Every year!

    FWIW, I actually liked opening my birthday presents under the tree when I was little, although now I obviously don't care. But separate wrapping paper is crucial, and it is important to make distinctions when you can. 

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  • imagetomandcourt:

    imagebh2720:
    My birthday is Jan. 6th and even 12 days after Christmas people were always trying to give joint xmas/bday presents which I think is bs :-) (but somehow I persevered!) 

    Mine was yesterday and I used to get so many joint gifts. And they were never bigger or anything, just like "here's your christmas/birthday t-shirt!" Jerks.

    Anyway . . . yeah, I actually have an uncle, cousin, and two friends with Christmas birthdays. I think your friends not being religious will help, because the focus won't be on the entire day, you know? Just presents under the tree in the morning. Maybe they can carve out something special in the evening for her (cake, family coming over)? Definitely separate presents. And maybe make a big deal about having a party with her friends the weekend after (because no one is ever around when you have a birthday close to Christmas, believe me).

    Aw, I wasn't online yesterday. Happy Belated Birthday!!! Party!!!

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  • My SIL is a Christmas Day baby and although she's an adult, she would tell you it sucks.  I really like pp's ideas about doing the celebrating another time - January?  February?  My mom's b-day is Dec. 30 and I am defintiely guilty every year of thinking I'm done with holiday shopping then remembering "oops, I still have to get mom a birthday gift!"  My girls both have Feb. birthdays and I can tell you that's a nice time (late Jan/early Feb) to have a party, because it's sort of the winter doldrums part of the year.
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  • Everyone I know who has a birthday around Christmas thinks it sucks.  People are just caught up in the holidays and it gets glossed over.  If I had a child with a Christmas birthday, I think I'd celebrate his/her 1/2 birthday in June.
  • I am a christmas eve baby and it is rough.  I am glad that I didn't go into labor!!  It would be nice to have a special day some time in the spring or summer.

    My folks were always very good about wrapping gifts in bday paper, having a bday cake and such.   

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  • imagevtkendra:

    I think that how people feel about their birthday is based more on how their family celebrates it and makes them feel and less about where it falls on the calendar.

    This. My birthday is the 18th of December...and yes I sometimes get joint gifts and yes it can be hard to get people together to celebrate, but honestly I generally really enjoy having my birthday this time of the year...often on my birthday when I was younger we would get our tree or decorate it or do something else related to Christmas and that was fine by me.  My parents always acknowledged my birthday as a distinct event...and my mom always made a point of wrapping my presents in bday, not Christmas paper.  I do think it would be hard to have a birthday on Christmas and I do think it's harder to have a birthday in the weeks after Christmas, just because people are a bit wiped out financially and energy-wise, but as long as the parents make the effort to acknowledge the event separately from all the other holiday madness, it works. 

  • My birthday is Dec 26th, my son's birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year and my Dad's birthday is Dec 21st. So I am from a a family that has dealt with this issue for years. I detest the idea of a 1/2 birthday. We celebrate on the day we were born and not some random day. We manage to make our birthdays a big deal: no holiday wrapping paper, no joint gifts, birthday cake and decor. Because it is your birthday so we do all the things we would do to honor you. I have never felt like my birthday sucked, why would someone even feel that way? If people are away, I always have my family and they are really the most important people to me. I would love to celebrate with my best friend  but she doesn't live close by and she still doesn't live nearby when her birthday rolls around in March :)

    I think the attitude that a birthday near Christmas is some kind of horrible thing is an attitude that we should get away from.

     

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  • I agree with Kendra that it's all what the parents make of it, but there are some things you just can't make up for.  My grandmother was born on the 21st, my mom on the 27th and neither of them are big fans.

    H was born on the 21st and already this year with family leaving for the holidays and our choir's holiday concert, we had to have her 1st bday party two weeks early. I know she won't remember it or care, but I think it's just foreshadowing future years as far as the pain of scheduling.  

    We certainly want to try to make her birthday special despite being so close to Christmas but I think it's hard to take away the sting that the holiday gets in the way of things. Not being able to have your birthday party on your birthday, or having to have it weeks early or 6 months later (we might go this route celebrating half birthdays with the bigger party and her actual birthday smaller with family) because that's when your friends are in town. I can't imagine if a birthday was on the 24th or 25th.

     

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  • imageBirdGirl01:
    Everyone I know who has a birthday around Christmas thinks it sucks.  People are just caught up in the holidays and it gets glossed over.  If I had a child with a Christmas birthday, I think I'd celebrate his/her 1/2 birthday in June.

     My birthday is June 25th so my half birthday is Christmas Day.  That June day stunk some because one I never got to celebrate my birthday at school like most other kids and secondly, people always went on vacation right after school got out so my friends couldn't come to my parties.  I couldn't celebrate my half birthday because once again the whole Christmas holidays issue.

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